She stopped and her hand went to her heart, the reaction was so sudden. “Yes,” she murmured, standing still with great heartbeats of joy, or was it pain?
The door slowly opened. “Did you think I could let you go without a blessing, my Paula, my little one!” came in those deep heart-tones which always made her tears start. And Mr. Sylvester stepped out of the shadows beyond and stood in the shadows at her side.
“I did not know,” she murmured. “I am so young, so feeble, such a mote in this great atmosphere of anguish. I longed to see you, to say goodbye, to thank you, but—” tears stopped her words; this was a parting that rent her tender heart.
Mr. Sylvester watched her and his deep chest rose spasmodically. “Paula,” said he, and there was a depth in his tone even she had never heard before, “are these tears for me?”
With a strong effort she controlled herself, looked up and faintly smiled. “I am an orphan,” she gently murmured; “you have been kind and tender to me beyond words; I have let myself love you as a father.”
A spasm crossed his features, the hand he had lifted to lay upon her head fell at his side, he surveyed her with eyes whose despairing fondness told her that her love had been more than met by this desolate childless man. But he did not reply as seemed natural, “Be to me then as a child. I can offer you no mother to guide or watch over you, but one parent is better than none. Henceforth you shall be known as my daughter.” Instead of that he shook his head mournfully, yearningly but irrevocably, and said, “To be your father would have been a dear position to occupy. I have sometimes hoped that I might be so blessed as to call it mine, but that is all past now. Your father I can never be. But I can bless you,” he murmured brokenly, “not as I did that day in your aunt’s little cottage, but silently and from afar as God always meant you should be blessed by me. Goodbye, Paula.”